Highlights with Matt

Well, here they are as promised! Sorry there are so many. Like I said - we had a LOT of fun.

• Watching Joella flirt with the random guy at the airport waiting for Matt's plane to land. I mean getting his attention from across the room flirt. In short, she likes the guys. We're in trouble...
  
  
• Getting to hug Matt again. When's the last time you went 6-ish months without a hug? (him, not me. I get plenty here. Joella's are especially fun lately with a running start)
  
  
• Asking Joella, "Where's daddy?" and after hesitating only slightly watching her knowingly point at Matt and smile. It was just the first time we were nervous. Matt says he wouldn't have been offended if she had gotten it wrong... Thank you, Ash for all the pictures and Matt for recording yourself reading books so she had a clue!
  
  
• Arranging for Matt to eat his favorite foods while he was back. They mostly revolved around pizza... others were homemade pancakes w/ real maple syrup, fresh homemade bread w/ honey, homemade pizza, tacos with homemade tortillas, Japanese steakhouse, snacks from Roots, Papa Murphy's, etc.

• The drive out to Colorado - haha, I got to borrow Matt's Kindle and read a couple books :) He was lucky it made it back in his bags. Love that thing

• Watching Joella play in the kiddy play area in the mall downtown Denver. She loves being around other kids.

• Meeting up with our good friend, Calais. She made the drive from Boulder to see us at Copper Mountain.

• Watching Matt's bro, Steve, ski for the first time. I convinced him to go out one day with us. I think he's glad he did. We promised we'd be careful about the videos we'd post. He had some good falls... so did I... We agreed we don't like speed.

• Trying to impress Matt with my improved snowboard skills (which are VERY lacking)

• Chillin' in the condo and relaxing with the family

• The drive back. Will never forget it. Jane & Jerry earned their "Papa and Nana badges" that day for dealing with Joella's vomit (twice) and blowout. The last blowout honestly smelled like an outhouse and we couldn't believe it really came from our tiny little girl. Took all 4 of us to clean her up (mostly w/ my bare hands). Awesome.

• Snowshoeing with friends in CF and long night of laughs and catching up.

• A traveling meal downtown CF with good friends. Delicious!

• Catching up with Jane & Jerry's long-time friends and neighbors. Sherrie and Dean have become more like family than neighbors. They're always watching out for us.
  

• Cross country skiing for the first time here in CF, just the 2 of us. So much fun.

• Getting our taxes done and turned in. Yes, it was actually fun this year. Crazy, right?

• Working. Never thought I'd say that but Matt and I work well together. We had fun brainstorming / figuring out how we are going to restructure the biz.

• Playing with Kaeda. Matt didn't realize how much she missed her. Awesome dog... :)

• Catching up with Joe/Les /Conor over homemade pizza. Conor loves to help in the kitchen and spent forever flippin' the dough. Joella had a fit when she thought she wasn't going to get to join in on the fun.

• Watching a couple episodes of Modern Family. That show cracks us up every time.
  

• Deciding I was too sick to take Matt back to the airport (got whatever Joella had) but feeling good enough to make it there and spend the extra hour with him.

All in all, it was a great time. Matt was especially sad to leave again. Here's how he put it. Last time, we had so much stuff to do (pack up, clean our rental, move, get me to Iowa, get his stuff ready for deployment, etc.) that his leaving was almost a relief. It was the end to a lot of work and prep. This time leaving was the end to 2 weeks of pure fun and relaxation. He knows what he's going back to so it's not the anticipation of something new. Instead, it's leaving his little girl behind who instead of crawling away from him can now run away from him. It's knowing that instead of hanging out with us, he's well, not. Sad stuff, I know.

Thing is, we signed up for this. It doesn't make it any easier, but we weren't surprised by the deployment or that he would be away for the year. Tough situation, but I'm thankful for what Matt's doing. I can't help but be giddy when someone asks me about Matt because I'm so thankful for him! I've got a pretty good guy :) I'm also thankful that God has used this time to strengthen our marriage more than ever and mature us in new ways. We've got a pretty good God too, huh?